What's Brewing & Doing - November edition

Sampled German Pils half way thru D rest (62*F)...sitting @ 1.013...will brew Baltic Porter tomorrow with the cake. Sample had a wisp of sulfur, was turbid, and tasted great (for a lager 13 days into ferment)

 

I'm stealing the idea that someone posted on this forum for a Millennium Falcon IPA. In honor of upcoming Star Wars movie-IPA bittered with millennium, then hopped with falconers flight and Galaxy. This will all go down on Black Friday. Thanks for the idea!

 

Bottled up a Brett IPA over the weekend (recipe was inspired by the "Tropics" recipe here). Smells fantastic, taste leaves a bit to be desired but I think it will get better while in the bottle.

Also brewed a 100% Brett Blonde that I plan to throw some peaches on in about a month or so. I pitched Brett B and L and the activity is amazing! It's chewing through my wort insanely fast. There is a slight smell of sulfur, but I'm assuming it will clean itself up eventually, right?

 

Just getting going on my wife's first beer. She likes IPA's, so we're doing a partial mash IPA. I will only be assisting and it will be "hers".

6lbs DME
1lb flaked wheat
1lb Vienna
1lb sugar

1oz Galaxy @60
15 oz Galaxy spread out over the last 3 mins and whirlpool

WLP644

Should be killer!

 

Yes, a pound of Galaxy in the boil should be killer.

 

I toasted some coconut yesterday for my Mounds Bar Stout minus the Mounds Bars and my kitchen still smells like coconut today. Free smells for days!

 

We decided to keep 3oz for dry hopping.

 

Today I brewed my house American Brown (12th iteration): Maris Otter with 5% Patagonia Crystal 75, 3% Crisp Amber, 3% Patagonia Especial, and 3% Carafa III Special. Magnum for bittering, Cascade and Willamette for finishing. Cal lager (2112) for fermenting. Plan to start this out at 60 F and then raise it to 70 over about a week. 1.055 OG, 58 IBUs, SRM = 20. Below is a photo taken during the sparge. Cheers!

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Baltic Porter in the garage @ 48*F ambient...pitched cake @58*F

 

moved the brewery to my winter location. Made a Belgium IPA yesterday, soon a Belgium strong with raspberries

 

Had to clean the gunk out of my dip tube after moving that IPA keg to my friend's party and back. Now it's pouring again, but the sediment is all stirred up and the tester glasses I poured last night were cloudier than anything by Trillium or Tired Hands. I hope that it will settled down again with time, the beer was pouring extremely clear before I moved the keg. And is it just me, or does trub taste really bitter? It was basically undrinkable last night.

 

I'm brewing a Northern English Brown. Something happened with the weather turning cold; I'm really excited to brew this!!!

 

The bitter trub is probably hop sediment which can be very bitter, the yeast can pull some of the IBUs out of solution over time. Also, whenever moving a keg I always jump it to a new keg to ensure that I don't get any sediment into solution. Just need a second keg, 2 liquid QDs, and a length of bev tub.

 

Kegged a Belgian Blond w/ Orange Blossom Honey instead of the typical sugar addition. First time using WLP575.

 

Today I am keging 10 gallons of Altbier and bottling 5 gallons of a hybrid big beer. This should finish around 10%.

 

About to start brewing my first attempt at a porter which I'm excited about.

 

Brewed a Celebration Ale type beer on turkey day. It was my first time using the BIAB technique. The bag I bought is really nice and fit perfectly over my Igloo. I was very surprised when I got approx 78% mash eff. It was also a lot less work for these old bones and a shorter brewday. Now if the brew tastes OK I will be a happy camper. Fermenting nicely at 64 deg with the Safale 05.

So for November:
Belgian single brown ale - kegged
Octoberfest/Marzen lager - almost done with the primary
Belgian Tripel - day 9 in primary
Red IPA - day 3 in primary

 

I just brewed my sixth batch last night. I did More Beer's Pliny Clone. I undershot my estimated volume by about a half gallon, but I think that is because I didn't factor in the two oz of loose leaf hops in the boil and I spilled just a bit, too. I had never used loose leaf hops before, but they seem to have really soaked up the wort. Overall, I'm happy though. Missed my SG by .001 and I really have dialed in my brewing/sanitation/clean-up methods. I finished up at midnight and thought that I would have no problem leaving off the blow-off tube until the morning. Bad idea! At 7:30, as I was walking down the stairs, I heard the airlock hit the 10' ceiling! Oh well, just a quick clean-up this time. I was surprised that it was that active in less than eight hours. It also was a whopping 13 degrees warmer in the fermentor than the ambient temp around it. The yeast were going nuts in there. Other than the explosion, everything seems to be going great so far. What a fun hobby!

 

Finally transferred my big belgian quad that has been in primary for 3 weeks to secondary on top of 1lb of raisins, 10oz of black mission figs, 6 pounds of tart cherries last night, and ECY20 to sour it. The quad's efficiency was amazing, with an OG of 1.096 and a gravity of 1.008 before racking to secondary.

 

Picked up some bulk base grain (Castle Pils and Fawcett Pearl) and started putting it to good use.

On Saturday I managed a double brew day. I brewed a 7.5% IPA that is being hopped with Citra and Amarillo mostly late and dry hop. I also brewed an Oatmeal Stout for an upcoming homebrew club internal contest. Pretty simple grain bill, but I did cold steep my roasted grain to maximize flavor and color while keeping the bitterness and astringency in check. Used 1968 as I am also using it as a massive starter for a Marshall Zhukov clone that I plan to split and age over various fun things.

I did also stop by Petco on Black Friday morning since it's next to Starbucks and managed to pick up a 55quart storage bin for grain for $17.70 Still on sale though not quite as cheap;

http://www.petco.com/product/125592/You-And-Me-Store-And-Roll-Food-Storage-Container.aspx